The ramblings of an aspiring writer

Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge Day 6: ‘The Virtual Vampire’

Day 6 of the Nov PAD Chapbook Challenge…today the task was to write a ‘We’re Being Watched’ poem. So naturally my mind turned to data gathered from internet history/social media etc…might have turned a bit more ranty than I initially intended, but hey ho 😉 Enjoy!

The Virtual Vampire

We’re all just the objects of amusement
For some voyeur of the virtual world
Who snickers at our Google searches
And use them to feed a hungry database
That swallows and spews this ammunition,
Regurgitated as made-to-measure advertisement.

This daily indignation and digestion
Is all in the name of ‘market research’,
A polite way of putting it, perhaps,
That underhanded, devious act
That manipulates our naïve minds
Into feeding more to the great money machine.

You can’t simply sneak through
The stormy sea of social media
Without one like or subscription
Or some hobby or interest
Suddenly spitting up enticing links
To some useless tat you might like.

Resist the burning urge to click!
That’s just what the watchers want.
You can still fight back
And not simply fall into line
Like the other mindless sheep
Who they have already trapped.

And you too can be free
Of those virtual vampires
Who suck not our blood
But our very livelihoods.

Like this poem? Read more in my first poetry collection, ‘The Awakening’, available NOW for download as an eBook on Amazon. Check it out here!